This invention relates to a combined vehicle sunvisor and display panel.
Vehicles are being supplied with more and more displays to provide information to an operator. As an example, information with regard to the current operating condition of the vehicle, such as speedometer, fuel gauge, oil temperature, etc. have historically been provided to a vehicle operator. More recently, new products such as vehicle navigation systems have provided additional information to the operator. Further, environmental control systems such as temperature, air conditioning, lights, radio and other entertainment information are also provided to the operator.
The increase in the amount of information provided to the operator has resulted in a situation wherein there are many display areas on the instrument panel of the vehicle. Many of these areas are in a location wherein the driver must look away to access the information, such that the driver's attention is not on the road.
Many of the prior art display panels are in a location where the operator must look away from the road in more than one axes. As an example, many display panels are positioned spaced towards the passenger seat from the driver, and at a vertical location beneath the windshield. Thus, the operator must look vertically downwardly, and to the right to see the information.
Moreover, many of these displays are associated with control buttons to change the state of the information displayed (i.e., radio volume, etc.). Again, if the operator's attention is diverted from the road to control these switches, the results may be undesirable.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an information display and associated control that does not remove the operator's line of vision from the road.